Massacres of Christians by heathen Chinese, and horrors of the Boxers; containing a complete history of the Boxers; the Tai-Ping insurrection and massacres of the foreign ministers; manners, customs and peculiarities of the Chinese .. . e thousand and one signs discerned by the literally determines everything and there is little gainsaying inhis word unless by chance his prophecies should prove erroneousfor a considerable period of time. In that event a mob sets uponhim and beats him to death and immediately engages a new fortuneteller who lives longer than his predecessor if he b
Massacres of Christians by heathen Chinese, and horrors of the Boxers; containing a complete history of the Boxers; the Tai-Ping insurrection and massacres of the foreign ministers; manners, customs and peculiarities of the Chinese .. . e thousand and one signs discerned by the literally determines everything and there is little gainsaying inhis word unless by chance his prophecies should prove erroneousfor a considerable period of time. In that event a mob sets uponhim and beats him to death and immediately engages a new fortuneteller who lives longer than his predecessor if he be fortunateenough to prophesy good things that come true. It was the fortune teller who first determined that the seat ofhonor for a guest at any ones table should be on the left. This iscontrary to the Western custom of placing the guest upon theright. The two opposing customs, though, in principle are proba-bly one. Both appear to be survivals of the ancient and almostuniversal worship of the sun. In China the needle of the Chinesecompass points toward the south and every house in China of anysize faces the same way as well as the seats of honor in all receptionrooms. The place on the left of the host is therefore that nearest. A CHINESE PAGODA. 110 POPULAR BELIEF IN DREAMS. to the east where the life-giving sun rises and hence its title to thehonor. The fortune teller discerned this several thousand years agoand having so dictated to the people the custom has remained tothis day. It is a natural result of the influence of soothsayers andfortune tellers, of the belief in dreams and the fear of signs andtokens, that the people should become fatalists. All natural emo-tions are suppressed as far as possible. What is, must be. Every-thing is willed. Just how it is willed the Chinaman cannot discernsave through chance, and, therefore, he throws out the dice or con-sults the oracles and upon their decisions bases his actions. SHUT OUT FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD. In another sense h
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